Microsoft to cap Xbox One post-launch achievement, challenge updates for fear of 'annoyance'

Last month at Microsoft’s E3 press conference, the company confirmed that Xbox One will grant developers the option to add new in-game challenges without additional Gamerscore via downloadable content. After the announcement, many took to social media to voice their concern over the matter. The biggest gripe was the possibility of annoyance that may come from developers adding content to their game on a quarterly, monthly or even weekly basis. However, earlier this week Microsoft confirmed that there will be a limit in place to cap the frequency of the updates.

"We're mindful of it, and the corollary is that with a lot of games today, three updates later, it's a nice evolution of that game--it's a different game that's been modified and adjusted, based on what people are enjoying and having fun with. And we think that Achievements should match that," Xbox LIVE's principal program manager Chad Gibson exclaimed.

"Especially if a game's been on the market for a while, and they have the opportunity to add all these new Achievements--if you start playing a game a year after it ships, there's probably 2000 Gamerscore to get for that game or more. And so, for the completionists, they're going to have more work to do."

This challenge cap will go alongside Microsoft’s plans to monitor developers and their Gamerscore additions.

"We still have policies for developers to make sure that things don't get out of control. Like, we do not want a game offering 10,000 Gamerscore every day. We still have policies, so that user experiences are rational--users have an opportunity to complete everything without feeling constantly overwhelmed."

"A game developer could just take its Gamerscore budget and just, you know, dole it out every week if they wanted to. But we don't want things to be out of control from a gamer perspective. We don't want people to be constantly overwhelmed with thousands and thousands of things for this game," Gibson said.

So, if you planned on getting 10,000 Gamerscore everyday from your favorite arcade title. Sorry, cotton, won’t work out for you.